Image courtesy of Covenant Theological Seminary
When it comes to theological teaching, seminary-bound students have considerably more options for extracurricular content than students entering seminary 20 years ago. Podcasts, blogs, YouTube channels — all of these sources can be helpful, but not every source is equally sound.
As part of its 2024 strategic plan, Covenant Theological Seminary has taken new steps to ensure its students, especially its students training for the pastorate, can clearly articulate a Reformed, Confessional perspective and are ready for ministry jobs and presbytery ordination exams. One element of this strategy is a new systematic theology exam for pastor-minded students earning the master of divinity and master of arts (biblical and theological studies) degrees.
ByFaith talked with Robbie Griggs, Covenant’s dean of faculty, about how “there’s more noise in the theological landscape than there used to be,” and how Covenant hopes to transmit a strong Reformed signal to its students. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What is the theology exam, and what is new about it?
As an institution, we’ve long had a Bible exam. That’s been a core part of our institutional history. As we were thinking through the needs of our students several years ago, one of the things we recognized — and there are a variety of factors that go into this — was that there’s more noise in the theological landscape. Students are exposed to more and varying points of view, far more than they used to be. And pastor-minded students tend to be curious theologically. Not only is there more content available through a variety of different channels, but there’s a lot of varying content in its theological approach and quality.
Our goal, as the denominational seminary of the PCA, is for the signal of Reformed theology to be clear to our students. But if we’re communicating in an environment where there is a lot of noise, then we have to make our signal stronger.
One aim of the theology exam is to help students do a self-assessment of their understanding of Presbyterian and Reformed theological orthodoxy. The exam does that by testing whether or not there is a clear grasp of a number of fundamental Reformed views on contested theological questions. So, the exam represents a robust Confessional point of view with the intention of helping students determine whether or not they understand the difference between Reformed theology and the other things that they might have heard.
Can you tell me what some of those key questions are?
For example, there has been a lot of controversy in the last 10 or 15 years around the doctrine of the Trinity. So, we want students to ask: do I have a firm grasp on the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and how that is articulated from a Confessional perspective? That would be one example, and another one would be on questions of soteriology. Can pastor-minded students adequately distinguish justification and sanctification, and do they understand how our Confessional standards relate justification and sanctification?
What happens when the test results demonstrate that students don’t have the grasp of those concepts that you would like to see?
We want students to understand where they stand, and then we can help them discern how they could grow in theological knowledge. The exam is one nudge to help students interact with professors in relation to their theological preparation for ordination. But also, if they’re under care of a PCA presbytery, it helps them know where specifically to engage with the appropriate committees and their mentors in those presbyteries to further their theological study and understanding of the Confession.
Because we’re preparing pastor-minded students for ministry in the PCA and other Reformed denominations, it’s very important that the signal of Confessional, Reformed theology be clear. So, the Westminster Confession and Catechisms are at the center of how we teach systematic theology. Students are mastering the Confession and Catechism for their assessments and exams. The aim is to help students understand what the Reformed and Confessional positions are on the various contemporary and historic topics of debate at each point throughout the systematic theology sequence.
That’s not to say that we weren’t doing these things before, but as the environment changes and there is a higher degree of diversity and variability in the theological conversation, it’s important to take that into account as we teach systematic theology.
When you say a higher degree of diversity and variability, what’s causing that higher degree of diversity?
For pastor-minded students, it’s primarily the exposure that they have to theological ideas through their lives online — social media, blogs, YouTube channels, or podcasts. There’s just a lot of content out there that sits in various kinds of relations to our teaching of systematic theology. And that diversity and volume has only increased in the last decade.
Consider a student who has grown up in the PCA, went to RUF, and then comes to Covenant Seminary. He’s been a covenant child and a Christian his whole life, and now he’s here. If you compare the story of that student now to the same kind of student 20 years ago, the student today is likely to have a higher degree of variability in his theological outlook. If he’s interested in theological issues, he’s going to be exposed to a far greater diversity of views and much more content than the same kind of student in the past. The experience of theology, because of our prevailing digital habits today, is curated very differently now than it was even ten years ago.
How are churches served by Covenant adding in this systematic theology exam and other changes you’re making?
The earlier students gain self-awareness about their knowledge of Reformed theology and the Confession, then the sooner and deeper they can grow in that knowledge. The aim is that, when they graduate from here, students are more deeply rooted in a Reformed, Confessional perspective. So, if a student receives a call as a pastor in a PCA church, by the time he is making contact with his credentials committee, he’s ready to begin taking his written exams and progress through to ordination. The goal is that the theological grappling that they need to do will start earlier in their education here so that by the time they get to presbytery exams, they’re ready.
Tell me about Covenant’s recent faculty hires in this department.
With the relatively recent hires of Dr. K.J. Drake and Dr. Drew Martin, we have added two experts on early modern Reformed theology. K.J. is an expert on the extra Calvinisticum. Drew is an expert on the theological and political context of the Westminster Confession. My own area is the theology of Galatians, a key biblical text for Reformational and early modern theological debates. It’s not just that we’re making the Reformed, Confessional theological signal clear in our courses; it’s that the people who are teaching are well-positioned to do that. We have scholarly expertise and, through service on presbytery and denominational committees, deep experience in theological preparation and examination.